Abstract: The present invention provides methods for universal lossy compression that provide performance at or near the rate-distortion limit and that are based on universal, implementable lossy source coding algorithms.

Type:
Application

Filed:
February 5, 2010

Publication date:
August 5, 2010

Applicant:
The Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University

Abstract: The present invention provides methods for universal lossy compression that provide performance at or near the rate-distortion limit and that are based on universal, implementable lossy source coding algorithms.

Type:
Grant

Filed:
February 5, 2010

Date of Patent:
November 27, 2012

Assignee:
The Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University

Abstract: A denoising process statistically processes a series of frames of a motion picture to construct respective data structures for the frames. Each data structure indicates for each of multiple contexts, occurrences of symbols that have the same context and are in the corresponding one of the frames. The data structures for multiple frames are combined to construct an enhanced data structure for one of the frames, and symbols in that frame are replaced with values determined using the enhanced data structure.

Abstract: A method of and system for denoising and decoding a noisy error correction coded signal received through a noise-introducing channel to produce a recovered signal. In one embodiment, noisy message blocks are separated from noisy check blocks in the noisy error correction coded signal. The noisy message blocks are denoised. Error correction decoding is performed on the denoised message blocks using the noisy check blocks to produce the recovered signal.

Abstract: A discrete, universal denoising method is applied to a noisy signal for which the source alphabet is typically large. The method exploits a priori information regarding expected characteristics of the signal. In particular, using characteristics of a continuous tone image such as continuity and small-scale symmetry allows definition of context classes containing large numbers of image contexts having similar statistical characteristics. Use of the context classes allows extraction of more reliable indications of the characteristic of a clean signal.

Abstract: A denoising process statistically processes a series of frames of a motion picture to construct respective data structures for the frames. Each data structure indicates for each of multiple contexts, occurrences of symbols that have the same context and are in the corresponding one of the frames. The data structures for multiple frames are combined to construct an enhanced data structure for one of the frames, and symbols in that frame are replaced with values determined using the enhanced data structure.

Abstract: A discrete, universal denoising method is applied to a noisy signal for which the source alphabet is typically large. The method exploits a priori information regarding expected characteristics of the signal. In particular, using characteristics of a continuous tone image such as continuity and small-scale symmetry allows definition of context classes containing large numbers of image contexts having similar statistical characteristics. Use of the context classes allows extraction of more reliable indications of the characteristic of a clean signal.

Abstract: The application is directed to generally applicable denoising methods and systems for recovering, from a noise-corrupted signal, a cleaned signal equal to, or close to, the original, clean signal that suffered corruption due to one or more noise-inducing processes, devices, or media In a first pass, noise-corrupted-signal-reconstruction systems and methods receive an instance of one of many different types of neighborhood rules and use the received neighborhood rule to acquire statistics from a noisy signal. In a second pass, the noise-corrupted-signal-reconstruction systems and methods receive an instance of one of many different types of denoising rules, and use the received denoising rule to denoise a received, noisy signal in order to produce a cleaned signal.

Abstract: Various embodiments of the present invention provide a compression method and system that compresses received data by first denoising the data and then losslessly compressing the denoised data. Denoising removes high entropy features of the data to produce lower entropy, denoised data that can be efficiently compressed by a lossless compression technique. One embodiment of the invention is a universal lossy compression method obtained by cascading a denoising technique with a universal lossless compression method. Alternative embodiments include methods obtained by cascading a denoising technique with one or more lossy or lossless compression methods.

Abstract: Embodiments of the present invention are directed to generally applicable denoising methods and systems for recovering, from a noise-corrupted signal, a cleaned signal equal to, or close to, the original, clean signal that suffered corruption due to one or more noise-inducing processes, devices, or media In a first pass, method embodiments and system embodiments of the present invention receive an instance of one of many different types of neighborhood rules and use the received neighborhood rule to acquire statistics from a noisy signal. In a second pass, the method embodiments and system embodiments of the present invention receive an instance of one of many different types of denoising rules, and use the received denoising rule to denoise a received, noisy signal in order to produce a cleaned signal.

Abstract: Various embodiments of the present invention provide a compression method and system that compresses received data by first denoising the data and then losslessly compressing the denoised data. Denoising removes high entropy features of the data to produce lower entropy, denoised data that can be efficiently compressed by a lossless compression technique. One embodiment of the invention is a universal lossy compression method obtained by cascading a denoising technique with a universal lossless compression method. Alternative embodiments include methods obtained by cascading a denoising technique with one or more lossy or lossless compression methods.

Abstract: In various embodiments of the present invention, a noisy signal denoiser is tuned and optimized by selecting denoiser parameters that provide relatively highly compressible denoiser output. When the original signal can be compared to the output of a denoiser, the denoiser can be accurately tuned and adjusted in order to produce a denoised signal that resembles as closely as possible the clear signal originally transmitted through a noise-introducing channel. However, when the clear signal is not available, as in many communications applications, other methods are needed. By adjusting the parameters to provide a denoised signal that is globally or locally maximally compressible, the denoiser can be optimized despite inaccessibility of the original, clear signal.

Abstract: Various embodiments of the present invention provide methods and systems for determining, representing, and using variable-length contexts in a variety of different computational applications. In one embodiment of the present invention, a balanced tree is used to represent all possible contexts of a fixed length, where the depth of the balanced tree is equal to the fixed length of the considered contexts. Then, in the embodiment, a pruning technique is used to sequentially coalesce the children of particular nodes in the tree in order to produce an unbalanced tree representing a set of variable-length contexts. The pruning method is selected, in one embodiment, to coalesce nodes, and, by doing so, to truncate the tree according to statistical considerations in order to produce a representation of a variably sized context model suitable for a particular application.

Abstract: A method of and system for generating reliability information for a noisy signal received through a noise-introducing channel. In one embodiment, symbol-transition probabilities are determined for the noise-introducing channel. Occurrences of metasymbols in the noisy signal are counted, each metasymbol providing a context for a symbol of the metasymbol. For each metasymbol occurring in the noisy signal, reliability information for each possible value of the symbol of the metasymbol is determined, the reliability information representing a probability that the value in the original signal corresponding to the symbol of the metasymbol assumed each of the possible values. In another embodiment, error correction coding may be performed by adding redundant data to an original signal prior to transmission by the noise-introducing channel and performing error correction decoding after transmission.

Abstract: Various embodiments of the present invention relate to a discrete denoiser that replaces all of one type of symbol in a received, noisy signal with a replacement symbol in order to produce a recovered signal less distorted with respect to an originally transmitted, clean signal than the received, noisy signal. Certain, initially developed discrete denoisers employ an analysis of the number of occurrences of metasymbols within the received, noisy signal in order to select symbols for replacement, and to select the replacement symbols for the symbols that are replaced. Embodiments of the present invention use blended counts that are combinations of the occurrences of metasymbol families within a noisy signal, rather than counts of individual, single metasymbols, to determine the symbols to be replaced and the replacement symbols corresponding to them.

Abstract: An apparatus for operating on a received signal that includes a noise-free signal that has been corrupted by a channel is disclosed. A memory stores a channel corruption function specifying the probability that a symbol having a value I was converted to a symbol having a value J by the channel, and a degradation function measuring the signal degradation that occurs if a symbol having the value I is replaced by symbol having a value J. The controller parses one of the received signal or the processed signal into phrases, and replaces one of the symbol having a value I in a context of that symbol in the received signal with a symbol having a value J if the replacement would reduce the estimated overall signal degradation in the processed signal. The context of a symbol depends on the phrase associated with the symbol.

Abstract: Various embodiments of the present invention provide methods and systems for determining, representing, and using variable-length contexts in a variety of different computational applications. In one embodiment of the present invention, a balanced tree is used to represent all possible contexts of a fixed length, where the depth of the balanced tree is equal to the fixed length of the considered contexts. Then, in the embodiment, a pruning technique is used to sequentially coalesce the children of particular nodes in the tree in order to produce an unbalanced tree representing a set of variable-length contexts. The pruning method is selected, in one embodiment, to coalesce nodes, and, by doing so, to truncate the tree according to statistical considerations in order to produce a representation of a variably sized context model suitable for a particular application.

Abstract: In various embodiments of the present invention, a noisy signal denoiser is tuned and optimized by selecting denoiser parameters that provide relatively highly compressible denoiser output. When the original signal can be compared to the output of a denoiser, the denoiser can be accurately tuned and adjusted in order to produce a denoised signal that resembles as closely as possible the clear signal originally transmitted through a noise-introducing channel. However, when the clear signal is not available, as in many communications applications, other methods are needed. By adjusting the parameters to provide a denoised signal that is globally or locally maximally compressible, the denoiser can be optimized despite inaccessibility of the original, clear signal.

Abstract: A method of and system for generating reliability information for a noisy signal received through a noise-introducing channel. In one embodiment, symbol-transition probabilities are determined for the noise-introducing channel. Occurrences of metasymbols in the noisy signal are counted, each metasymbol providing a context for a symbol of the metasymbol. For each metasymbol occurring in the noisy signal, reliability information for each possible value of the symbol of the metasymbol is determined, the reliability information representing a probability that the value in the original signal corresponding to the symbol of the metasymbol assumed each of the possible values. In another embodiment, error correction coding may be performed by adding redundant data to an original signal prior to transmission by the noise-introducing channel and performing error correction decoding after transmission.

Abstract: An apparatus and method for processing a received signal that has been corrupted by a channel to generate a processed signal having less signal corruption than the received signal is disclosed. The apparatus stores the received signal, information specifying the probability that a symbol having a value I will be converted to a symbol having a value J by the channel, and information specifying a signal degradation function that measures the signal degradation that occurs if a symbol having the value I is replaced by symbol having a value J. The controller replaces each symbol having a value I in a context of that symbol in the received signal with a symbol having a value J that minimizes the overall signal degradation in the processed signal relative to the underlying noise-free signal as estimated via the observed statistics within that context.